Chimala Hospital news
The past several days have been very full and busy. Tanzania will be celebrating "Florence Nightingale Day" and I believe their 60th anniversary of nursing together this year on March 19th. Chimala Hospital will be the location for the Regional Celebration. We will be expecting many, many guests to our hospital. As I informed you a couple of weeks ago, the mattresses in the hospital are in bad shape and I have decided to try to raise funds to purchase new ones. Well, I decided to go a step further. I have had two wonderful people tell me they were sending me a donation for mattresses, but I decided to trust that God will provide. I have already purchased 40 new mattresses for the hospital! I am praying for donations to help cover the cost.
Renee, Chad, Anna and I spent last week sorting through the donations of sheets we have received from our brothers and sisters in America. We and the staff are working together to get the old, horrible mattresses out and the new in, as well as putting out new linens. It was tiring and hard work, but so enjoyable. The staff and the patients were so excited to receive the new mattresses and bedding! The doctors even stopped by and commented on how nice the wards were looking.
Anna has been working hard painting some of the key exterior areas of the hospital. This has been very challenging for her since we cannot just shut down the hallways. A few of the areas she has painted have had to be "re-done" due to finger prints. Oh, well, nothing on earth is perfect.
Chimala Mission also has their own workshop and crew. They are attempting to get a new bridge built between the hospital and the church before the celebration. The activities for the celebration will be held in front of the church in order to prevent so much disruption at the hospital. The old bridge was only wide enough for people to walk single-file and it was very crooked and the wood was old and rotting. I wanted to show you a picture of it, however, I was too late....the bridge came down just before I arrived to take a photo of it. I will show you the new one when it is finished.
Not only has the week been really busy, but we have also had some difficult days as far as patients are concerned. We have been caring for a 2 year old little boy who was accidentally burning with hot water. His burns were very severe and covered about 50% of his body. As you can imagine the outcome was not expected to be good, however, he survived for 14 days and we were hopeful. Sadly we lost him last Thursday.
On Saturday, one of the staff here at Chimala brought in her 4 month old little girl. She had been sick for 3 or 4 days prior to coming to the hospital. Unfortunately, she died within 5 hours of being admitted to the hospital. I hate losing patients....always have. The reality of life here is just a bit harsher than in the states. I pray daily, often many times a day, for God to help me....to help us have the wisdom, strength and resources needed to care for the physical needs of these patients. I pray that through praying with the patients, caring for them and hurting with them, they will know Jesus loves them.
I have been working hard on a teaching tool on "the care of the burn patient" these last three days. I am hoping that we can begin some more aggressive treatments for the burn victims and hopefully have some improved results. May God help us as we strive to improve the treatments and the education in order to provide better physical health to those we serve. And may He help us to show them His love through our care so we may then reach out to teach them the gospel.
Renee, Chad, Anna and I spent last week sorting through the donations of sheets we have received from our brothers and sisters in America. We and the staff are working together to get the old, horrible mattresses out and the new in, as well as putting out new linens. It was tiring and hard work, but so enjoyable. The staff and the patients were so excited to receive the new mattresses and bedding! The doctors even stopped by and commented on how nice the wards were looking.
Anna has been working hard painting some of the key exterior areas of the hospital. This has been very challenging for her since we cannot just shut down the hallways. A few of the areas she has painted have had to be "re-done" due to finger prints. Oh, well, nothing on earth is perfect.
Chimala Mission also has their own workshop and crew. They are attempting to get a new bridge built between the hospital and the church before the celebration. The activities for the celebration will be held in front of the church in order to prevent so much disruption at the hospital. The old bridge was only wide enough for people to walk single-file and it was very crooked and the wood was old and rotting. I wanted to show you a picture of it, however, I was too late....the bridge came down just before I arrived to take a photo of it. I will show you the new one when it is finished.
Not only has the week been really busy, but we have also had some difficult days as far as patients are concerned. We have been caring for a 2 year old little boy who was accidentally burning with hot water. His burns were very severe and covered about 50% of his body. As you can imagine the outcome was not expected to be good, however, he survived for 14 days and we were hopeful. Sadly we lost him last Thursday.
On Saturday, one of the staff here at Chimala brought in her 4 month old little girl. She had been sick for 3 or 4 days prior to coming to the hospital. Unfortunately, she died within 5 hours of being admitted to the hospital. I hate losing patients....always have. The reality of life here is just a bit harsher than in the states. I pray daily, often many times a day, for God to help me....to help us have the wisdom, strength and resources needed to care for the physical needs of these patients. I pray that through praying with the patients, caring for them and hurting with them, they will know Jesus loves them.
I have been working hard on a teaching tool on "the care of the burn patient" these last three days. I am hoping that we can begin some more aggressive treatments for the burn victims and hopefully have some improved results. May God help us as we strive to improve the treatments and the education in order to provide better physical health to those we serve. And may He help us to show them His love through our care so we may then reach out to teach them the gospel.
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